Intentions to Marry, 1891

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840403, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

The Archives NZ CSV index has recorded pages 765, 767 and 769 incorrectly as 795, 797 and 796.

Page 1084

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1891

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
203	13 May 1891	Thomas Jennings Annie Young	Thomas Jennings Annie Young 💍 1891/117	Bachelor Spinster	Construction	27 24	Te Arai Devonport	25 years 18 months	Registrar's Office	91/1088		13 May 1891	J. Owen Lord Reg.
204	13 May 1891	Edward Augustus Baker Alice Mary Lamb	Edward Augustus Davies Alice Mary Lamb 💍 1891/835	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	20 17	Auckland Kingsland	20 years 14 days	St. Lukes Church	91/1069	Mother of Alice Lamb	13 May 1891	Rev. F. Larkins Ch. of England
206	15 May 1891	Arthur Herbert White Annie Phillipps	Arthur Herbert White Annie Phillipps 💍 1891/3250	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	36 26	Eden Terrace Carlton Gore Rd Auckland	1 year 26 years	Wesleyan Church	91/1013		15 May 1891	Rev. R. Rich Wesleyan
207	18 May 1891	Fred Backer Elizabeth Davies	Fred Baxter Elizabeth Davies 💍 1891/3264	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	31 22	Auckland Auckland	28 years 22 years	Dwelling of Mr. Backer	91/1026		18 May 1891	Rev. J. Cheece Congregational
208	19 May 1891	Ephraim Pitcher Margaret McCann	Ephraim Pitcher Margaret McKeown 💍 1891/118	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	24 21	Parkins Rd Riverhead Newton Auckland	3 months 18 months	Registrar's Office	91/1089		19 May 1891	J. Owen Lord Reg.
209	20 May 1891	Henry McCann Catherine Mulqueeney	Henry McGarry Catherine Mulqueeney 💍 1891/1206	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Auckland Auckland	6 years 7 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	91/1017	James Patrick Mulqueeney father of bride	20 May 1891	Rev. F. J. O'Shearett R. Catholic
210	21 May 1891	Cecil Beetes Ellen Kirkpatrick Simpson	Matthew McGarvey Eccles Ellen Kirkpatrick Simpson 💍 1891/128	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	31 20	Helensville Surrey Hills Auckland	6 months 16 years	Registrar's Office	91/1091	William Simpson mother	21 May 1891	J. Owen Lord Reg.
215	15 May 1891	Henry George Snelbatch Eleanor Airey	Henry George Greatbatch Eleanor Airy 💍 1891/3254	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	31 23	Auckland Rose Road Ponsonby	13 years 7 years	Dwelling of Arthur Henry Airey	91/1017		15 May 1891	Rev. F. Farley Ch. of England

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).